News

The Brooklyn Law School Board of Trustees welcomed two outstanding recent graduates to the Board this winter. Kathleen M. Chastaine ’06, an associate in the Private Equity Group at Winston & Strawn LLP, and Scott B. Selinger ’06, an associate in the Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Group at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, were appointed in December 2009 for a two-year term.

“We are very pleased to have such bright young legal minds join the Board of Trustees,” said Dean Joan G. Wexler. “With the Law School experience still relatively fresh in their minds, their contributions to the Board will be invaluable to our student and alumni community.”

Chastaine began her legal career as a paralegal at Paul Weiss after graduating from Colgate University with a degree, cum laude, in English and a minor in Economics. She excelled at the Law School, making the Dean’s List and earning the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in the Securities Arbitration Workshop.

At Winston & Strawn, Chastaine focuses primarily on leveraged buyouts, private equity, and venture capital funds. But her most recent transaction, a tender offer for a publically traded company on behalf of her client, a private equity fund, was her first foray into the world of securities and mergers & acquisitions. She joined Winston & Strawn in November 2009, after two years at Nixon Peabody, where she was part of its private equity group.

Chastaine has remained a part of the Law School community, working with the mentor program after graduating. “It’s important for me to do whatever I can to support the school because I know I would not be where I am today if it had not been for Brooklyn Law School. The reputation it has with law firms really helps a lot,” she said. “I had such incredible experiences with the professors. They often went the extra mile, using their connections to help students find jobs. I know how rare that is.”

In her role as Graduate Trustee, Chastaine says she is looking forward to learning more about how the School works and how decisions are made, and to representing the students. “I think that it’s a great thing that the board has younger members to give them a voice and to represent their concerns and opinions.”

Like Chastaine, Selinger thrived at the Law School, graduating cum laude with a slew of honors including membership on the Journal of Law and Policy, a CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Legal Writing, and a Richardson Merit Scholarship. He was also part of the planning board that created the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law.

An interest in finance and a background in hedge fund asset management and regulation led him to become a research assistant for Professor Norman Poser, where he worked on an article exploring the SEC’s proposed Regulation NMS, a series of initiatives designed to modernize and strengthen the national market system for equity securities, and other issues relating to market structure.

After graduating, he joined Cahill Gordon & Reindell’s corporate practice group where he represented investment banks and commercial banks in market-leading syndicated bank loans and high yield offerings in connection with leveraged buyout and refinancing transactions, including representing the financing sources in the leveraged buyouts of TXU, First Data, and US Foodservice. While at Cahill, Selinger became a leader in the Law School’s Partners in Leadership Program, a newly launched alumni program that serves as both an invaluable networking resource for alumni and a new avenue of philanthropic support.

In April 2010, Selinger joined the Acquisition and Leveraged Finance group at Debevoise & Plimpton, where he will represent the firm’s private equity and corporate clients in connection with domestic and international leveraged finance transactions including syndicated bank loans, high-yield debt offerings, second lien financings, and mezzanine capital investments.

“I had a very positive experience at the Law School. I enjoyed the professors and made good friendships that I have maintained since then,” said Selinger. “As a new member of the Board, I hope I am able to contribute positively to the process while giving the perspective of someone who has gone through the Law School recently.”